#but that’s the /thing/ with scum villain

[hahashifts]

Villain POV

Well this was unexpected. Not at all how I'd expected this night to go. The hero of the city, bleeding and broken on my doorstep, because this was the only place they could think of to go that would be safe.

I surpressed the warmth rising in me, strange sensation - probably mere indigestion from dinner. Regardless, the bane of my existence was in my arms and I was putting her on my sofa. I could hear the men who had done this to her racing straight for my home.

Good. They will taste my wrath and I will dwell out the vengeance for the fallen hero they defiled with their wretched hands. I'd relieve them of the damned appendages before I ended their miserable life's. Make an example of them for any others that may try to follow in their footsteps.

Being a villain, sewing chaos and disorder and fighting against the system is one thing, but cruelty and vileness for the sake of it was a disgrace that couldn't be forgiven.

The little heroes light was out, her magic somewhere far away. It would return to her or they would suffer all the more for it. But she was stable enough for me to deal with the trash quickly approaching my doorstep. No need to sully the furnishings with their blood.

I stepped over the threshold of my domicile and closed the door just as they approached me. Three men, all clearly drunk.

"Good evening, gentlemen." I sneered as I smelled her blood on them. I saw red. "It appears you put your hands on something that doesn't belong to you," and in one smooth motion my sword was out and had sliced through each of their wrists like slicing butter and their screams pierced the night air as they realized, stunned and eyes bulging, as all 6 pairs of their hands fell from their wrists to the cobblestone streets. "You do know the punishment for assault and rape, I presume? Good."

I kicked the man in front of me, reeking of ale and her blood, his kneecap shattering from the impact and wrenched his head down into the stone beneath me hard enough to shatter his teeth and crack open his skull. It was easy to pick him up and throw him across the courtyard, as if he weighed no less than a rabbit.

The next man had bruised knuckles and more of her blood on his shirt and neck, so I removed his jugular and tossed it toward one of the alley cats that had snuck nearby, hearing the commotion. Sputtering and attempting to grasp at his gaping neck with the stubs of his bleeding arms he fell to his knees and it was a simple thing to twist his neck and end him.

It wasn't on purpose, of course, but his head was a full 180° when I let him go.

The third man was screaming and attempting to run away, the coward, but he slipped on his friends blood and fell with enough force that he bit through his own tongue, severing the appendage so I didn't even have to go through the effort of doing it myself. I loved how fate often worked in this way.

He, however, had clearly touched the precious jewel that was bleeding all over his vintage velvet sofa, and for that he needed to suffer.

There was a fountain in the middle of the courtyard, but that was too good for the scum. No, he would need - Perfect.

Grabbing him by the collar it was an easy thing to drag him to the nearest puddle and shove his face into the muddy, disgusting city water, keeping my boot pressed tightly to the back of his neck so he could struggle and kick but with no hands and his severed tongue it was only a matter of whether he would bleed out or drown in the shallow puddle.

It didn't really matter to me, so long as his death was painful and as humiliating as she must have felt fleeing through the streets half naked with torn clothes and a bleeding temple.

Red swarmed my vision again and the maggot beneath me was still squirming, so I snapped his thigh with my other boot and put all my pressure on the back of his neck, killing him soundly.

It was a simple call to some of my guys to have them come clean up the bodies and the blood, and I left the cats to lap at the blood pooling in the streets and the bodies left for the rats.

My men knew not to bury them, but leave them out somewhere for the animals, for that was the only fitting end for them.

When I returned her breathing was shallow but some of that inner light was beginning to shine through, just barely pulsing with her heartbeat like a constellation of silver glowing freckles, dim, but there.

I sighed with relief.

She'd... Trusted me. Trusted me when she was at her most vulnerable. It was an odd feeling, one that I hadn't felt in... I'm not even sure when.

Decades, if I had to guess.

I quickly cleaned the blood off me and whatever other remnants were left of the maggots, then got to work on cleaning and bandaging the damaged girl on his couch.

Enemy, he tried to remind himself.

But looking at her, the way she'd looked at him when he opened the door as if he was her salvation...

That stirring and flickering of warmth in my chest flared up again. Had I been poisoned? Surely not, it was just her presence, of course. I'd felt this way around her since we'd had our first run in two years ago. Some reaction to her innate inner magic, I'd assumed. It was proof of how powerful she was, part of what made her such a fantastic adversary.

But what had been done to her tonight... What had she been doing on this side of the river in the first place? Alone?

Nobody was to lay hands on her except for me, everyone knows that. Everyone in the underground knows, everyone on the river knows, everyone in the city knows she's mine. Doing this to her, especially those nobodies? They'd be lucky if any of their crew made it to see tomorrow.

She was in rough shape. She had a black eye, split lip, nearly broken cheekbone, cut on her temple that had stopped bleeding, finally.

Damn head wounds bleed so much on these half linggs, I had nearly forgotten. I covered her with a blanket when I'd first brought her inside and laid her on my couch, partly for her sake, partly for the sake of my dear quiet corner of this shit hole of a city.

I was fairly certain they hadn't gotten as far as they had probably hoped, but I'd never seen the kind of fear in her eyes as I did when I opened that damn door tonight. She was terrified. And she'd probably never admit it. But I'd seen it. And she'd trusted me.

In this, I wouldn't break that trust. There were few things I bothered to do right these days, but I did have a code, and it was no hard feat to fit protecting her - my enemy - from her enemies and those that would do her harm.

The hero shows up at the villain’s doorstep one night. They’re shivering, bleeding, scared. There’s also a slightly dazed look in their eyes– they were drugged. They look like they were assaulted. Looking up at the villain, swaying slightly as they’re close to passing out, they mumble “…didn’t know where else to go…” then collapse into the villain’s arms.

[whos-the-seme]

very sleep deprived but what if: "I dunno, I'm just saying--" sqh wiggles his eyebrows at him.

"stop saying. immediately." to punctuate his words, sqq goes for his true and tried technique: throwing a fan at sqh's forehead with deadly accuracy. it strikes true before the other could dodge and the other lets out a hiss of pain, but stops talking with a small whine of "bro--" and a pout.

a few minutes later, when sqh is still sending him shiny wide eyes and exaggeratedly rubbing at his forehead, sqq sighs. without thinking, he leans over to smack a giant wet kiss on the slightly reddened spot, pushing a bit of spiritual energy into it. he dismisses down the intense urge he has to bite and make it worse. the mark disappears.

"there, I healed it. fucking happy?"

"very happy, thank you very much"

sqh looks at him from underneath his eyelashes, a teasing smirk growing on his face at getting sqq to capitulate, and sqq rolls his eyes, bc sqh honestly could've and should've done it himself, what does he look like, a fucking healer?? he already has to deal with without a cure and sure the amount of energy needed to heal a small knock on the head was so minuscule that it wouldn't affect him even on a bad day, but like???

he's been giving in more and more these days but its not his fault that the airplane was so convincing when he started to act fucking pathetic and just made sqq feel bad for him a little.

(and okay, he likes how vicious, apathetic, hyper competent a-hua can sometimes just be so cute and needy--)

someone cleared their throat.

sqq instantly freezes. he carefully does not notice from the corner of his eyes how sqh has also gone rigid.

in eerie and stiff unison, they both turned their heads to face the rest of the room. the very full room. the very full room of other peak lords. the very full room of other peak lords because they were currently at the monthly peak lord meeting.

the very full room of other peak lords that were staring at him and sqh because they just witnessed him plant a kiss on sqh's forehead.

the silence stretched.

damnit, airplane.

[gludgenbell]

Happy Heart Day from me to you, featuring my favourite svsss characters

4/8! The pink batch of valentines is done

and now I take a nap and hopefully finish the other 4 by the end of the day!

[ohsweetflips]

your brother will pick you up…… your sister found your body…………….

[megamuscle885-blog]

I picked Bakuda/String Theory, and I'm glad people are recognizing it for the fallout that it would be. Fallout is exactly what I would call their ship. I'll type out my thoughts on the others though; Night/Fog: Tragic though undercut by their nazi affiliations, their pantomime marriage is the only thing keeping them anywhere near sanity. Assuming they don't outright murder each-other over whatever caused the divorce, they both now have to figure out how they're going to function when they no longer have anything to tether themselves to. Likely to end up living weapons in separate nazi groups, or join the S9 when Jack blows through town. Casualties would be no more than usual for parahuman nazi scum. Fog might go on a directionless killing spree as he mutely works through what little feelings he has left. Night's monster form can't physically cry while she's alone and unobserved more than usual now. Though, thinking about it, both are true for the other. This doesn't really spark much of a comment in the parahuman community, other than the increased killings.

Defiant/Dragon: Also heartbreaking, because their main draw to each-other was a relationship built on respect and vulnerability. If it were Armsmaster, he might've said something wildly misogynistic or something that made her distrust him with her AI secret, and they would've cut ties personally but maybe maintained a professional veneer. A Defiant/Dragon split means they exposed their mutual vulnerabilities and still weren't able to make it work. No casualties. The antithesis of a messy divorce, they would split from each-other and cry very privately, but stay together for the kid (Weaver). The kind of divorce where the love has died and trust/respect has left. People didn't really know about their relationship that much.

Foil/Parian: Maybe Parian realizes the power dynamic is a little skewed, with Foil abandoning everything else to be with her. Maybe the age gap comes up in a messy way. Whatever the divorce reason, the fallout isn't significant beyond them both leaving the Undersiders. They weren't really part of the team except to be for each-other. Tattletale sees it coming a mile off, but for whatever reason, she doesn't do anything to stop it. I haven't read Ward yet, so I'm not sure on the intricacies of their relationship. March might swoop in to take advantage of Foil's grief. In which case the casualties aren't even their own fault. Impact would be limited to their henchmen and associated Undersiders fans/henchmen.

Imp/Regent: Regent becomes a little more careless with his thralls. He found someone who made him feel a little more human and now she's gone. Except Imp is never actually gone. She begins to haunt him, a constant voyeur and a gaping hole where someone should be. I'm actually struggling for a divorce reason here though. His death stayed with her for years after, despite her anger at his self sacrifice. I don't think either of them would go out of their way to lash out and cause casualties. If they want each-other dead, they're both uniquely equipped to counter each-other. Brian would comfort Aisha once he sees her genuinely upset. I don't think there would even be any Heartbroken with the Undersiders if it wasn't for Imp/Regent.

Assault/Battery: We've seen what kind of man he turns into when Battery is out of Assault's life. Compared to the above, their divorce is actually a long time coming. His perceived guilt over causing her to Trigger, any lingering blame over the loss of her father, his sexual harassment, her career being reduced to ex-villain babysitting for her corrupt bosses. Again, this divorce has been a long time coming. Assault becomes reckless, vindictive, punishing. Desperate to prove himself to her, or to prove her wrong, he goes overboard on criminals and villains and might even end up kicked out of the protectorate and jailed himself. She rectifies a massive smear on her career and moves on from Brockton Bay, though jaded and untrusting of a system that rewards usefulness and punishes the principled. Merits little more than a PHO thread from their respective fans.

Trickster/Echidna: This divorce is hard to see because his whole deal is that he's ride or die for her even though their relationship isn't ride or die. It's very much a problem that he's so willing to do anything for her. Canonically they made an S-Class event even worse, blew up the PRT's whole global mission, led to the underwhelming performance at Behemoth which also caused the largest casualties faced in an Endbringer battle to date (not sure on the civilian casualties but New Delhi is rather populated). It's not their divorce that is messy, it's their fucking 'marriage'. So, I think a divorce, so to speak, would probably involve Noelle being cured and Trickster no longer having an excuse to do horrible things for her/to keep the Travellers together. The casualties in that event are probably limited to the Travellers, and even then, maybe just their interpersonal relationships. They can never be together again. Trickster has been called a reverse Skitter by a few essayists here, and I think nothing shows that more than how Skitter's relationships are forged in fire, but Trickster's break apart in the crucible and he holds the slag together with his bare hands.

Bitch/Skitter: Oh. Don't leave her Skitter. Please don't go. She's your ever faithful dog. She'll wait for you. She'll build a shrine for everything and everyone she's lost, and keep a beehive there for you. She's always been trying to get the world to leave her alone, but she would be happy if she was alone with you.

We already have Canon. We know why she had to go. We know the casualties. Billions died. The end of the world.

Accord/Blasto: I can't decide if their divorce or their relationship is messier. Opposites definitely do not attract as often as they are depicted in fiction, as fun as it is to pair them up. Accord is practically the opposite of Blasto in every way. I also can't decide if their breakup is as messy as people have tagged. Either Blasto sees it coming or he doesn't. Accord, once slighted and once he decides the relationship cannot continue, will have Blasto's still beating heart in his hand and his severed head mounted on the wall. Mess is not Accord's thing, after all. A clean execution will be just the thing. If Blasto sees it coming, or if he's the one to break it off (which is a lot more likely and funnier) then he's got approximately one hour to release the Morrigan and get the fuck out of the eastern seaboard.

Miss Militia/Piggot: How does the marriage even kick off here? Piggot is unlikely to date a co-worker, a subordinate or a parahuman in increasing degrees of unlikeliness and Miss Militia doesn't seem to have much going on for her outside of being a living weapon for the Protectorate. Decidedly unmessy divorce though. Piggot may be forced to resign, Miss Militia might transfer out. Neither of them are likely to cause collateral damage, and neither of them show a lack of restraint with their emotions. Sparks a little inter-office gossip, but largely from the fact that nobody knew they were dating in the first place. I don't think I've ever read a Miss Militia/Piggot ship, so I am utterly unimaginative with this one. I'll accept recommendations.

Bakuda/String Theory: Yeah. Why is anyone else on this list? We know who's going to win. It's them. Lets say that they meet in the Birdcage, that Bakuda gets put in String's wing rather than the Fairy Queen's. Lung is stopped by a coalition of Tinkers once they reason out what he's there for, and his little display of power strategy has to be rethought once the entire prison makes it clear that nobody fucks with the people who keep the TVs working. So they begin a relationship, miss Bakuda and the String Theory. The marriage and the divorce are practically the same thing. Threatening to kill each-other at the end of every conversation. They describe how they'd do it, of course. Bakuda would trap her in a single moment of time, like a bug in amber. String Theory would squash her like a bug, like a high orbital kinetic hammer striking the most arrogant, Bostonian accented nail to ever exist. You have the two most volatile lesbian Tinkers to have ever existed, both of them academics largely disrespected and ignored to the breaking point, and both have had their careers of ruling others through fear. They're even both ticking time bombs in a way, Bakuda's literal examples and String Theory's timed weapon firing. The hate sex will threaten the structural stability of the Birdcage. The makeup sex will also threaten the structural stability of the Birdcage. They would make each-other worse by combining their strengths and the fallout would lead to the destruction of an entire earth of their own once they're released from the Birdcage together. I'm actually wondering a little if Wildbow intended for Bakuda to be a narrative copy of String Theory because of how similar they are to each-other. The leaders of the respective wings (excluding String Theory) meet to discuss contingencies if they actually manage to kill each-other. Lab Rat just can't get any peace and quiet anymore, now that there's two of them. He's the third wheel in their relationship and wishes he wasn't there to hear them complain about each-other/plan to kill each-other.

Glory Girl/Gallant: Oh, so this time it's for real? Maybe they finally hit the last straw here. Maybe Amy's whole deal comes out in a messy way, and they blame each-other for their neglect. Jealous supergirl trashes rich boy's new car by kicking it across the parking lot. They made a C-tier movie about this concept I think, starring Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson. Yawn. I think it's just going to be limited to Arcadia's gossip mill about Victoria and Dean, and if he's going to be grabbed by his ankles and slammed into the side of a building like a hamster.

Brandish/Flashbang: Hilariously, I accidentally typed Brandish/Manpower while going through the list before I realized my mistake. I don't think we need to guess the reason they divorce. Isn't she a divorce lawyer too? This one is the most stereotypical divorce on the list, and they don't even split up beyond sleeping in separate beds. The 'stay together for the kids (and team)' kind of divorce that just makes his depressive states worse and her walls come up higher. Tragically, Victoria thinks it's her fault. The casualties are New Wave as a whole and potentially whatever happens once Flashbang detonates in Brandish's face. If the secret gets out, things get worse. Maybe things get better for Amy once the pretense of a nuclear family ruptures and she's able to get out from under Carol and gain some breathing room. Victoria tries to hold everyone together.

I need to do another dumb poll.

I had fun with those.

Um...

How about...

It's 420am I should probably just sleep...

Now I would like to note:

This isn't which ship you like the most. This is which would have the messiest divorce. The sort the whole cape community is talking about.

Everyone's going "did you hear what happened down in ___"

[hxllo-hui]

Just finished svsss - they’re so silly I love them all

[fairsweetlonging]

truth serum / system reveal au where shen qingqiu gets hit with an uncloaking spell that reveals the system in the reflection of his eyes every time it pops up.

during one of his missions, in the treasure hoard of some dragon-like creature, he finds a golden, oval shaped hand mirror, its gaudy style more victorian based than anything (airplane you hack!), that doesn't seem to do anything when he looks into it. but when he does, it reveals the system's screen in his eyes.

he doesn't notice this, of course, because he can't see it, and the system, surprisingly, stays quiet.

the peak lords think he's cursed.

maybe mu qingfang is the first to notice, during the mandatory post mission check-up, when shen qingqiu is scrolling through his most recently accumulated points and mu qingfang can see the strange vividly-blue lines reflected in his pupils. it's gone when shen qingqiu blinks, like it was nothing but a trick of the light.

it comes out when yue qingyuan is visiting and, just as he's done laying out the plans for a new mission, shen qingqiu's eyes glaze over and a bright blue box takes over the whole of his iris. shen qingqiu goes quiet; the thing in his eyes moves, shifts, pulses for a second, like static worms crawling all over his pupils. then he blinks, and it's gone, and shen qingqiu accepts the mission that yue qingyuan was almost sure he would decline.

maybe there is an intervention, when the peak lords corner shen qingqiu at qian cao peak and try to figure out what's wrong, subjecting him to all kinds of treatments and curse-finding spells that turn up empty, they can't find anything.

of course, the silencing threat is still very much up and running. at first shen qingqiu was kind of confused by the whole ordeal, but when the peak lords start describing a "strange blue box", he realizes, with sickening suddenty, that they're describing the system. and he can't say anything.

this only makes everything worse, because their fellow peak lord now keeps evading every question and acts like he doesn't understand. liu qingge points right at his face and asks, "that blue box, what is it?" and shen qingqiu laughs nervously and starts talking about how bright the weather is and surely it's the sky and nothing to worry about!

even worse, during the intervention the system thought it was a good idea to start talking to him, so now even the peak lords who hadn't seen it and who might have been persuaded by light tricks and reflections, get a first row view that no, that definitely isn't a trick of the light.

they try to do the whole thing of "are you in danger, blink twice" but shen qingqiu can't even do that because it's still a direct admittance!

maybe eventually he starts saying vague confirmations that don't actually confirm anything, like "this master hears what you're saying", or maybe he goes with a classic "this master can neither confirm nor deny that." but the system starts warning him for that too and eventually he stops saying anything, which worries the others more.

luckily mu qingfang catches on that every time they ask a direct question about the box or shen qingqiu says anything vaguely confirming, it appears. it doesn't appear when they ask about curses or demons, so it must not see that as a threat.

for a little extra angst: maybe the peak lords keep pressuring him for answers, and at some point shen qingqiu gets fed up and snaps out something like, "why don't you understand that i'm not allowed to answer that!" the system counts this as a direct admittance, threatening it's existence. so it punishes. shen qingqiu has a qi deviation so bad it lasts two weeks and takes two people every day to cleanse his meridians. the system doesn't appear in that time. it doesn't appear for a long while after that, either. the peak lords stop asking, mainly because shen qingqiu will instantly leave the room if they do. they don't stop searching for a cure, though.

shang qinghua returns from a business trip and catches on the second someone mentions a blue box and forced silencing.

[bishy437]

he won

bonus:

[sunderwight]

Scum Villain AU where Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu transmigrate by swapping lives (i.e. Shen Yuan wakes up in Shen Qingqiu's body on Qing Jing Peak, post-fever, while Shen Jiu wakes up in Shen Yuan's body in a hospital in modern China) but it doesn't quite work right.

The system glitches or something and they end up having to jointly time share their lives. Every time a certain moon phase or something (cyclical) comes around they abruptly switch back.

So they spend the entire time trying to undo everything the other one has been up to while everyone around them is just desperately attempting to figure out wtf is going on. Shen Yuan does the skinner quest and stops Luo Binghe's abuse, and Shen Jiu gets a job with a rival company and starts showing up Shen Yuan's brothers. Then they switch back and Shen Jiu is like "it's woodshed o'clock for the beast" and Shen Yuan resigns. Then they switch back again and Shen Yuan saves Liu Qingge's life and gets poisoned defending Luo Binghe, and Shen Jiu creates his own start-up and blackmails his eldest brother about the mistress he's just uncovered. Then they switch back and Shen Yuan gets his brother and his sister-in-law into couples counseling and Shen Jiu embarks on a quest to either cure himself without Liu Qingge's help or die trying.

Eventually they just start leaving bitchy messages for one another to find and doing things that won't cause lasting damage but are incredibly petty. Shen Yuan keeps trying to tell Shen Jiu to read PIDW but Shen Jiu takes one look at his merch-filled bachelor pad and immediately decides that his opinions aren't worth anything, so it takes him a while to actually do it (he is really mad about this when he finally opens the novel and it turns out to be extremely relevant information).

[rikan-oo]

I had trouble finding the right words to describe what exactly I like in SY and SJ until now

So, my favorite Shen dynamics:

Alternatively:

[rhiangalaxy]

@nibbelraz's SQH bros AU brings me so much joy

[ID: A Scum Villain Comic. Airplane/SQH as a child dressed in yellow and orange robes looks up happily and says "Gege, do you have games on your phone?" The next part depicts OG!Shang Qinghua ruffling Airplane's head with a tired look towards a paper simply responding "No." with a smaller chibi version of him next to his head saying 'What is a phone??' as if thinking internally. Airplane, whines "Awwww..." in response to SQH's No. End ID]

[starry-bi-sky]

on a completely separate note; shizun luo binghe with a disciple shen yuan who fell into the abyss??? *thinks about LBH canonically stealing SQQ's corpse for 5 years* he'd hallucinate i think. like, like visual and audial hallucinations.

Keeps thinking he's seeing SQQ in the corner of his eyes, or wandering between the trees, amongst a group of disciples. Thinks he hears him calling for him, but its just the wind or another disciple.

Gets Xiu Ya reforged but patently fucking refuses to make a sword mound. Because his disciple Is Not Dead :))) There was No Body. He's Not Dead. And If You keep Insisting That He Is, He's Gonna Skewer You :). He's holding onto Xiu Ya so he can return his most favored disciple's sword when he returns. It's on his hip right next to Zheng Yang where it's supposed to be.

Also this motherfucker?? does not sleep btw. He has the image of SQQ, wide eyed and hysterical and standing at the mouth of the abyss burned into his fucking eyelids. Can't use the dreamscape to escape it either because he keeps trying to save him and either he does and it's an incredibly cruel trick to wake up to, or he doesn't and he gets his heart broken in several different pieces again.

There is no convincing this man that Shen Qingqiu is dead. Absolutely nothing at all. He is buried so deep in denial that moles would be jealous of how deep he is. He keeps making tea for two in the bamboo house only to remember that it's just him. SQQ's fans are hiding everywhere, little reminders of his presence. He goes to wake up SQQ on the mornings he sleeps in-- only to find the room empty.

[thunderpot]

Macbeth moshang,

[cattnipt]

Fucked up looking dog you got there

[cloudemojie]

currently reading svsss and going insane

[tiredbitchposts]

Speaking of a lesbian Shen Yuan, let's just get it out of the way this woman would NOT know how to act after transmitgation. Like, all it took for a male Shen Yuan to start acting like the world's biggest babygirl was dying and being reborn into a villain's body, what do you think would happen if he was a closeted lesbian who religiously consumed either porn or male centric media? She'd commit war crimes on the poor women who had the luck of interacting with her. This woman would squeeze Liu Qingge's biceps and playfully say she can always depend on her strong shimei to protect her, she'd U-haul a marriageble age Luo Binghe into her side room and treat her as one would a wife, she'd host her sect leader to talk about her peak's budget wearing exactly two layers because it's just so hot and we're all women here shijie, she'd invite Gongyi Xiao to her peak with a smile and too much subtext for it to sound like a simple discipline invite to anyone hearing it, she'd call Zhuzi-lang fascinating to her face with no type of irony or mockery. This woman would would do all that AND still think think someone means lebanese when they say they're a lesbian, again, the system doesn't know what type of evil they unleashed upon the PIDW world